MOT after SIX years of sorn - tips / advice please!

[RustyNuts]

Christ sake Rusty Nuts, make a thread about your car and post all the questions in it, give us the history and why you want to keep it, ask any questions you want in the thread and people will answer and enjoy it, I'd actually like to read about it.

 

If you dont want to do that then post questions like this (and all the other ones) in the stupid questions thread (after all thats what it's for), and stop cluttering the board up. 

 

Feel free to respond to this in a passive aggressive way in 54321........

 

Howdi..

 

To be honest, I figured that with seperate issues, other people might find seperate threads useful (eg if coming in from google) so i figured a serperate topic for each thing (eg injectors, head gaskets etc etc) would be a good thing. Plus it is a bit more activity on the board... but clearly i've got that wrong! Apologies again... I don't seem to be getting a lot right on this board lately and have to wonder if there is much point staying as there are so many critical people here.

 

But yes.. at some point when I get chance, I will do a topic about the car with its history etc - but that will be a long topic and not one I can do right now..

 

 

When's it in for test??

 

Hopefully finishing off the car tomorrow,. so next week (though I've been saying next week quite a lot recently).

 

When his missus / son allow him.

 

So... never.

 

Does feel like that quite often mate... she doesn't like me doing anything for me or having hobbies / interests. She's always been like it, I just got used to it but since the little fella has come about she's become almost psycho about it.

[beko1987]

We work better with big progress threads tbh. Stops clutter on the page. People coming from Google will just have to deal with it! You can change the thread title with progress, just edit the first post, then 'full editor' and the thread title edit box pops up. Makes it much easier to keep progress, and people like me like going back to page 1 and reading the whole lot like a story!

 

Bang it in for it's test, then edit your original car post, post up the failure/advisory sheet and we can advise/laugh/sympathise. You can check yourself before they tell you usually, just keep hitting refresh on the DVLA mot history site 45 minutes/1 hour after the test time started!

[beko1987]

 

Does feel like that quite often mate... she doesn't like me doing anything for me or having hobbies / interests. She's always been like it, I just got used to it but since the little fella has come about she's become almost psycho about it.

I can sympathise with this. Whilst mine isn't quote as psycho about it I still get no time as she works weekends so I have the kids during the day whilst she sleeps. It's the vacuum cleaners she hates " you always do your fucking hoovers rather than look after the kids, that's all you ever think about" Well love, I've done tea, the washing up, hung the washing out that I put on before I left for work, got the kids to bed and yes, now I'm stripping a dyson to earn £50/£60. Fuck off to bed. When she's not working it's fair game to work on the cars, but usually Eva wants to do something which comes first unless work on the cars is urgent, usually I send her shopping and don't moan about the spend/get her to bring me a kfc back

 

But that is a rant for the single and sad thead!

[scruff]

I would like to hear how a engine swap got drawn out for six years, that's got to be a record. Mind you I do know someone who has dragged out an engine rebuild for nearly that long.

[beko1987]

I'd have forgotten where every little fixing went by now!

[nigel bickle]

Hey man, you're relatively new here. You'll fit in.

 

We're an ascerbic old bunch of know-alls ( knowledge here is truly epic) but we warm quickly to try-ers.

 

You've a Safrane - you're a perfect fit.

[Jim Bell]

Best of luck with the Mot.

Best of luck with the missus.

[SiC]

The best analogy I can think of is, that having a new thread for every update is like having a new storage tub for every single nut and bolt taken off a car. You end up with loads of tubs and when trying to remember which one had the part (or topic) useful in, you can't find it!

 

GLWTM (good luck with the mot)

[AMC Rebel]

I would like to hear how a engine swap got drawn out for six years, that's got to be a record. Mind you I do know someone who has dragged out an engine rebuild for nearly that long.

My MG ZT-T engine swap is heading for year.......and counting

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Anyone who spends six years swapping the engine in their Safrane is a solid gold shiter and we need more of them, that's for sure. I would defo say stick it all in a single thread though rather than have half a dozen pictureless threads asking different questions and whatnot. And tell your Mrs to ram it next time she goes off on one, theres nowt wrong with you having a few hours to do your own thing now and then, its normal and healthy.

[garbaldy]

In fairness rusty isn't the only one to start random threads, just yesterday a new thread looking for a door which could have been on the same collection thread.

[johngarty]

Alternatively you could save the MOT money and arrange an intervention for the sister in law?

Or get her to cook some hash brownies, feed them to the wife on a regular basis and enjoy hassle free car tinkering.  

[RustyNuts]

I would like to hear how a engine swap got drawn out for six years, that's got to be a record. Mind you I do know someone who has dragged out an engine rebuild for nearly that long.

 

It was never supposed to be an engine swap - just a waterpump and cambelt change. Unfortunately all the garages in my county seem to be wimps because it's a renault-volvo setup and they all get a bit scared of it due to the lack of tech documentation - the renault dealers priced it out of the workshop and the renault specialists have all refused to touch it.

 

I have no limits. I went and bought the hardware and set about doing it myself - on the advice of one garage that tried (and fucked it up) that the engine had to come out. So me being me I took it out. As you'll gather from my big cockups thread... it was a monumental cockup.

 

Got the belt done... after snapping 7 waterpump bolts and having them all drilled and helicoils fitted. Got the belt done, put it all back together, back into the car... do you think it would start? Absolutely not. I had the neighbours look at it, an engine specialist, spent plenty of time on the phone to a mate at the local renault dealers... nobody could get to the bottom of it. So out it came again to check the timing... that was ok, back in, still no go. Back out, back in, in, out, in, out, break some more shite about... 

 

So I gave up and let it sit there for 14 months I think it was. Went out there one day and literally told the car if it wasn't going to start that day i might as well send it off for scrap. Neighbour came over and started poking and prodding and suggested we try another ignition coil - even though a spark was being put out by the existing one. So I grabbed another coil and fitted it.turned the key (no exhaust connected) bang.. it fired.

 

So then with enthusiasm restored, I set to work on putting the engine bay back together. Then found the cooling system was rather intermittent. Kept tinkering with the sensor which seemed to have something to do with it and then thought I'd fixed it. Left it idling on the drive one day... realised the fans hadn't kicked in half an hour later and the temp needle was off the scale. Shit!

 

So then it refused to restart. It wasn't seized due to the heat as i could crank it by hand with no plugs in it. Another year went by before I got a spare engine out of another safrane I broke up. Then I had surgery which went wrong, they had to open me right up to save my life and I was told my scar / wound would only reach 90% strength after a year and no strenuous activity. which meant that i couldn't deal with the dead engine or swap it for the spare (I couldn't even stand properly for 3 months). So another year has crept by and then when I got out to it and took another look it turned out to be a connector under the autobox. Sorted that... still no cooling...  head gasket was showing clear signs of being dead... so i got on with anti rust stuff instead. Removed rear subframe, shocks, springs... snapped some brake lines... Then a house move, nearly had to scrap the car as the owner wanted it off his drive (I'd barely just got the shocks reinstalled) mnaged to move it on a low loader, had problems with the new brake lines (thought air got into the abs pump). 

 

Oh yes and in there somewhere I had a leak in the drivers footwell to fix... turned out to be THREE leaks (you can tell i'm quite a lucky guy right?) so that took about 3-4 months of trial and error to completely solve (meaning the entire cabin was in bits - seats out loose, carpet and centre consoles out, screws all over the place... you get the idea.. lol Meanwhile I'm also chasing round after a dodgy cd changer fault... turned out to be a +v supply wire to the preamp had grazed it's wire against the roof and was grounding itself....

 

Oh and the central locking decided to pack up at one point... then came back to life six months later.. then started unlocking itself and relocking (right in front of me too) - turned out to be condensation up in the roof dripping down into the switch.. presumably the condensation had come from the drivers footwell which hadn't been fixed at that point...

 

To be honest fella... the whole car has been one long pain in the butt. We've had two other safranes that gave less hassle but they were both old dogs. This one was like a new car when we first acquired it... but after sitting around for years in various states of disrepair it kinda slipped.. but i couldn't admit defeat and so continued to plod along with it for six gruelling years.

 

 

Anyone who spends six years swapping the engine in their Safrane is a solid gold shiter and we need more of them, that's for sure.

 

It's been a long rotten and bloody stressful journey... but if it qualifies me as gold i'll be a happy man lol

 

You've a Safrane - you're a perfect fit.

 

Hope so lol. I've noticed one or two on this forum who also have them.. so i feel kinda at home!